New

Used

2012 Hyundai Equus - Quality Review

We'll send you an email whenever there's new information about the Hyundai Equus.

Alert Me!

Thank you! We will notify you when reviews, news, and incentives are released for this vehicle.

What will I get by subscribing to email updates?

At The Car Connection we are continually striving to get you timely, relevant information about the vehicle you are interested in. Our email updates will notify you whenever we have new information on this vehicle.

For example:

new car reviews for this model by our editors

news including price changes, new models, or recall info

new incentives and rebates that are being offered for this vehicle

Our goal is to keep you informed as you research!

We'll send you an email whenever there's new information about the Hyundai Equus.

Alert Me!

Thank you! We will notify you when reviews, news, and incentives are released for this vehicle.

QUALITY | 9 out of 10

Expert Quotes:

The rear passenger-side seat even has a La-Z-Boy-like footrest, though it's unusable for taller people.Automobile

The interior is cavernous. Passenger space rivals that of the Mercedes S-class and long-wheelbase Audi A8 and surpasses that of the stretched Lexus LS (and we won’t even get the extended-wheelbase version of the Equus offered in South Korea).Car and Driver

you can also enjoy a power headrest that tilts inward to comfortably ensconce your cranium, a seat the reclines so deeply you'd swear your spine is going to hit the luggage, and an ottoman that rises up as a footrest. Autoblog

Possibly only a G5 bizjet would provide a more coddling place to spend a cross-country jaunt.Inside Line

You are not likely to experience a car that’s quieter than the Equus unless you try wearing earmuffs in one that’s parked in a garage in the middle of the desert while your wife is on vacation. Fox Car Report

The progress Hyundai has made in the past decade--everything from styling to performance to quality--can be observed inside the Equus sedan.

The four-door's cockpit succeeds at contemporary luxury like no Hyundai before it. The automaker clearly has studied the Lexus LS and benchmarked everything from fit and finish to the comfort of the seats. There, the Equus takes the side of comfort, leaving the heavy bolstering to German performance sedans. The front seats are heated and ventilated, and like some competitors, the Equus driver seat can inflate and deflate some of its cushions to massage the driver's back. Whether you think it's a great stay-awake feature or a gimmick is between you and your backside.

Surrounding those front seats is a dash capped in walnut or birch trim and trimmed out with fine leather. The headliner's sueded, just like the headliners in the top-line Jaguars, and the center console is framed in wood.

That console houses the knob controller that directs some of the climate and entertainment functions, which are displayed on a big LCD screen, framed by winged vents that mimic the Equus' Korean-market hood ornament. (The hood ornament doesn't fit U.S. safety requirements, though we're sure you could find one on eBay and fit it on your own).

The Equus' rear seat comes either as a three-person bench on Signature editions, or as a pair of buckets on the luxury-overload Ultimate edition. On the latter Equus, Hyundai fits a reclining, massaging seat in back--but only on the passenger side. A legacy of its role as a chauffeur-driven car in Korea, the single reclining chair also accepts the reality that this Equus isn't quite long enough to sport a fully reclining chair. Trust us--you'll be fine with the ventilation and massaging, and the gentle power rake to the backrest. And that reclining chair makes complete sense in long-wheelbase Equus sedans, should they ever make their way Stateside.

Conclusion

Every square inch is filled with high-quality materials, but the Hyundai Equus doesn't quite have the back-seat space of its rivals.

The TCC Rating is a clear numeric rating value based on a 10-point scale that reflects the overall opinion of our automotive experts on any vehicle and rolls up ratings we give each vehicle across sub-categories you care about like performance, safety, styling and more.

Our rating also has simple color-coded “Stop” (red), “Caution” (orange), or “Go” (green) messages along with the numerical score so you can easily understand where we stand at a glance.

Our automotive experts then also collect and show you what other websites say about these different aspects of any vehicle. We do this leg work for you to simplify your research process.